Most of the readings I've done seems to say that the G1W is the best bang for your buck dash camera, and the next best thing in video quality next to the BlackVue cameras. It's just missing a few of the fancier features, like GPS, speedo, etc. I opted for the G1W-CB because capacitor cameras work better in cars and the silver ring around the lens is black to make it a touch more discrete.
One thing to note, there are a lot of G1W clones out on the internet, some are inferior to others. The G1W you're looking for has to have the Novatek NT96650 chipset, the cheaper knockoffs don't use it.
I picked up three G1W-CBs from
www.gearbest.com, plus three rearview mirror mounts. GearBest had free expedient shipping at the time, so I got everything at my door step from China less than a week after I put my order in. Customs for the three cameras came out to just over 24 dollars.
For now I have the power plugged into my lighter and the cord run under my dash, up the A pillar and under the headliner. I'll get around to hardwiring it eventually.
What I got, G1W-CB + rearview mirror mount.
Box opened.
What's in the box, I'll be chucking out the mirror mount.
Rearview mirror mount on.
Camera on and plugged in.
View from the front. (Yes, I'm parked in a half built garage SHUT UP)
Video straight out of the box. It was a cloudy morning. I made no adjustments to the default settings other than the date and time. I'll be putting up some blue sky daylight video and night time video as soon as I get them.
Pros:
- Inexpensive
- Easy to use
- Manual is a hilarious Chinese to English direct translation, but easy enough to understand
Neutral
- Cloudy day video quality isn't what I expected. It is more dim than I'd like, but fiddling with the settings and turning up the compensation should resolve that.
- Camera has multiple settings for video lengths and was set at 2 minutes, but video lengths of the files produced seemed to randomly range from 12 seconds to just under 2 minutes. The G-sensor in the camera is suspected to be the culprit, I'll be turning down the sensitivity or shutting it off completely to see if that fixes the issue.
Cons
- Screensaver mode is turned off by default. Meaning the little 2.7" screen is always on when you're driving. There is an option to turn it on and set the screen to shut off after 3/5/10 minutes. I would have preferred the screen to shut off after an even shorter amount of time. Maybe 30-60 seconds.
- The white sensor (?) on the front of the camera makes it less discrete than I'd like
- Missing the fancy GPS/speedo stuff the BlackVue has
My thoughts:
The camera is simple and easy to use and a good buy at around 50 bucks. Seeing how drivers seem to be getting worse every day, I'd say using a dash camera would be prudent. Recommended.